


Home is where the heart is

by AllMyKindsOfThings



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi (2017), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: I ship StormPilot but he had to, Implied/Referenced Torture, M/M, Poe dies you're warned, only reason it's M is to be safe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-02
Updated: 2018-05-02
Packaged: 2019-05-01 08:13:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14516139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllMyKindsOfThings/pseuds/AllMyKindsOfThings
Summary: Hux got himself captured by a rogue Dameron after Finn got himself captured by the First Order. Hux suffers being hostage to a crazed Dameron. Kylo wants his General back and the Pilot dead. In the meantime, Ren and Hux realise some feelings...





	Home is where the heart is

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my beta-reader @fandomlander. I honestly couldn't have done it without you. You're the first person to have come to talk to me about Kylux and we haven't stopped since then! Thank you for being there!

**9 weeks ago**

“Sir, we got him!”

“Perfect. Put him in a hole and let him rot until the Great Emo agrees to exchange him for Finn or until Hux talks. Whichever is fine by me”. 

It had already been a month since Finn had been captured and Commander Poe Dameron had cut off ties with the Rebels in order to bring him back. Nobody in High Command gave a second thought about the former Stormtrooper. He used to be important but his intel had been out of date for some time now. 

So, in order to get him back, Poe had a plan: capture Hux and make him talk. By any means necessary. Phase one of his plan was now complete.

**8 weeks ago**

He’s done it. That insignificant bug got himself captured. He fell into their trap. What an idiot. Kylo couldn’t believe how stupid his second in command had been to just go on that mission without the proper escort. If Hux had been here, he would have killed him with his bare hands. 

“Supreme Leader, Sir! We might have a lead on where their ship was headed,” the Lieutenant waited for permission to continue.

“Keep talking! What are you waiting for?! Your General has been captured! The info he carries… Do you have any idea how perilous this situation is?” Kylo didn’t need the Force to see the utter confusion on his Lieutenant’s face. 

“Uhm I- Ye- No- I-” the man was so terrified he couldn’t even form a sentence. 

Out of frustration, Ren made a table crash on the wall right next to him.

“Get OUT and plan a course!! YOU USELESS PIECE OF-” Kylo was screaming at the poor lieutenant, all the while destroying common objects with the Force. He didn’t even get to finish his sentence, the Lieutenant had exited the room. 

The Supreme Leader was lost. For the first time is his entire life, he was utterly lost. Killing Han and the death of Leia were nothing compared to this feeling. And he couldn’t understand where it was coming from. And that was fueling his anger. How could he feel so lost because  _ one  _ mere pawn was missing in the game.

So instead of working his anger on inanimate object, he decided to pay a visit to the cells. FN-2187 might have a lead on their location.

**7 weeks ago**

The hole they put the General in was dark and damp to say the least. No sunlight, he had no idea what time it was anymore and the food never came on a regular basis. The first few days had been the hardest but his metabolism had adapted. He always adapted. But today was special. For the first time, they had dragged him from his cell and tied him up half naked on a chair. He felt like hours had passed when finally the  _ great  _ Poe Dameron entered the room. 

“Tell me where Finn is” Poe said, anger ready to pounce behind the calm façade. The eyes never lied.

Hux snorted out “Who?” He was expecting this situation. And he wouldn’t let them have anything. The Academy had prepared him physically !

His ego on the other hand wasn’t quite prepared for the humiliation that followed.

**4 weeks ago**

“My Lord, we have received a transmission. It’s Commander Poe Dameron, Sir. He says he has something you might want back.”

Finally. Something concrete. He had been searching the galaxy for more than a month now. Kylo couldn’t understand why. Hux was  _ just  _ another General, right ? He could replace him in the blink of an eye. Yet… here he was, unable to sleep correctly, not eating properly. The personnel of the ship avoiding him at all cost, he could see them in the hallways, turning around and hurrying away. Once, he would have cared. Maybe. If he was honest with himself, and he rarely liked to be, maybe he started to see the reason why he was suddenly so out of it. He hadn’t realised that Hux had been a constant in his life. Probably the only one who made it this far without dying either by his hand or another’s. He thought he despised the man but… Maybe… He really didn’t want to dwell on that. He had to find his general and go back to normal. Yes. Go back to normal.

“Waiting for His Supreme Annoyance… I’ll hold” Kylo could hear Poe’s voice on the radio.

“Dameron… perhaps I should have killed you that day when you were at my mercy. A kindness I’ll be sure to never show again. What do you want?” said Ren with as much cool as he could muster.

“Whatever. You wanna bargain?”

“Bargain?”

“Yes. Finn for your tiny General. You must miss him by now… He told us so many things about you, Ren... “

**3 weeks ago**

Hux couldn’t tell how long he had been there. Weeks. Months. It sure felt like years. The deprivation and humiliation. He could feel his mind slowly giving up. Not that he wanted to. But he had to face it: nobody would come to save him.  _ He _ wouldn’t come to save him. 

“You know, we have had contact with your Supreme Leader…” Poe snarled at him. Hux offered no answer, thinking that maybe…

“He said you weren’t of any value to him. Really. I think his exact words were “you should get rid of your trash more often”. Nobody will come to rescue you, Hux. Nobody cares. Just give me the coordinates of Finn’s last location and I promise I’ll release you on the planet of your choosing… as soon as Finn is back, of course”

So it was over. There was no chance he would go home again. He knew that Ren didn’t like him but he thought that being the General of his army might grant him his mercy. Apparently it didn’t. Hux’s mind just retreated a little more. Unable to to process the situation anymore. But still, he didn’t talk. He decided to let himself die instead.

**2 weeks ago**

They had an agreement. Hux for Finn. Finn for Hux. But Finn was still in Kylo’s ship. And Kylo still had a lot of anger to work out. A lot of feelings he couldn’t quite grasp. He agreed to this deal so fast the words seemed to be out before he had formed a thought. Poe had barely finished his proposal before Kylo was already asking him for the exchange coordinates whilst threatening that if anything happened to Hux, anything at all, Finn would pay the price with his life. And he promised not to show any restraint if that was the case. 

But Kylo was still frustrated. He wanted Hux back  _ now _ . He wanted his life back to normal  _ now _ .  _ But do you really want to go back to how it was before _ , said his inner self. It was difficult for him to meditate because everytime he tried, Hux’s face came to his mind. It was like he could almost feel him, his pain. He was in so much pain, that much he could tell. And his heart broke a little bit more every time. That heart he thought gone for good -cold and dark- seemed to be beating in rhythm with someone else’s. A feeling he thought impossible, gone, left with all that was light, all that could only bring pain and suffering in the end, a feeling that insinuated its way back into his soul.   

**A few days ago**

Physically, he was a shell of what he used to be. Every part of his body hurt and his mind had started to betray him. They had fed him of course. And he vaguely remembered a time when he had actually tried to starve himself to death but they force-fed him. “We need you alive, asshole” Poe had said.    
He just let them feed him now. 

It was during one of those sessions that he felt it first. Or more accurately, saw it in his mind. A face. Dark at first, a shadow really. He thought he’d finally gone mad. But the shadow came back later when he was alone in his cell. The traits got clearer and he recognized him. Kylo Ren. With the face came a feeling of care, for lack of a better word in Hux’s vocabulary. But the strongest feeling he felt from him was worry and… could it be? No, his reason told him that it was not possible. First, because Ren loved nothing and no one. Second, because why would he care for such a rat… an idiotic dog as him. He got himself captured. There was no going back from that. Ever. And yet there it was, a warmth in his mind that comforted him, that was trying to lift him up, to tell him to fight!

He jumped when the door slammed open, crawled his way to the nearest corner, scraping the wall to hide further. He felt more than saw the strong hands grabbing his arm, pulling him away. He tried to fight it but he was too weak to do anything meaningful.

“Be happy! We struck a deal with your loverboy, we’re exchanging you for Finn in a couple of days. We need you clean and looking good for his Supreme Pain in my Ass! Can you believe it? He cares after all. He cares about a rabid cur like you… Oh don’t look so surprised, he probably wants to kill you himself.”

**Present day**

Poe placed Hux at a reasonable distance from himself. He ordered all the blasters to be pointed at the man at all time and the man to be ready for his orders. So Hux was just thrown on the sandy ground like a bag of rations. Too weak to even kneel on his own execution. 

Ren’s visitations in his mind had been sparse but always brought a feeling of warmth and care Hux wasn’t used to. He didn’t want to let himself believe in the hope they portrayed, afraid to only be disappointed. So he dealt with them by treating them as delusions of his tired, tortured mind.

But there he stands. Kylo Ren, the Supreme Leader of The First Order himself, walking in front of a battalion of Stormtroopers. Dressed in full gear, cape billowing dramatically behind him, face hidden. That helmet he used to hate instantly becoming the symbol of soon-to-be freedom now, ironically. He feels Ren’s presence in his mind, he sees his face smiling, no trace of malice in it, just a pure happy smile, something he has never seen on the face of the Knight of Ren. And something that strangely suits him.

Hux notices that Ren is holding a chain, attached to that traitor  FN-2187, who is being lead along like a dog on a leash. He doesn’t look well and somehow the thought that the traitor suffered as much as Hux did makes the General proud.

“Dameron! I have your dog, release the General or feel the full wrath of the Force” the distorted voice of Kylo is pure music to Hux’s ears. His mind finally jolting alive, realising that his agony might just be over. The physical part of it anyway.

“You’re welcome to come get your Starkiller once Finn is secure half the way to me. Not one second before that, or I fire all the blasters at my disposal.” The hate in the pilot’s voice is heavy and the fear that Ren might not do as told is real. However, the mention of “Starkiller” brings back a spark of fight in the General.

He tries to get up, tries to start walking but after a couple of steps he fails miserable. His muscles are not carrying him and he simply doesn’t have enough energy. He sees the ground and prepares for the pain to come but the ground doesn’t seem to come as fast as it should and he ends up landing nicely on the dirt, as if someone had just laid him there. As he lifts his head he can see Ren’s extended arm and the rest is obvious.

As Hux sees FN-2187 pass next to him, he can see the extend of Ren’s rage on the former Stormtrooper. Hux has no idea how he is still standing when he’s about as strong as a bag of flour. 

“On my count, shoot him” Hux hears the words, he knows Ren can’t, he’s simply too far. 

So this is it… he glances a last time to his Supreme Leader and barely has time to close his eyes.

“3...2…”

The blaster fires never come. Death never comes. It takes Hux a couple of second to register that he’s not dead but he should be. He opens his eyes, his first sight is the dark figure of Kylo Ren, both arms raised, possibly trembling, from afar, he’s not sure. Then, as his vision widens, he understands: he is surrounded by the hot blaster fires, all pointing to him, all a couple of centimeters from his body.

“AARGH” the time it took for him to make this realisation is enough for Ren to find the strength in the Force to turn all the fires back to their owners. Hux now realizes the sheer amount of power this man yields. This man who is  _ his  _ Supreme Leader. This man who is his savior. 

Hux hears gurgles behind him and as he looks back he sees Dameron trying to grasp the invisible rope around his neck as he’s being lifted up from the ground.

“This is the last time you try anything against the First Order. You should have kept your word, I might have let you live.” Kylo says as he walks bristly towards the pilot. 

As he passes Hux, the General can feel the single question in his mind “ _ Are you okay? _ ” he nods simply, too impressed to form words, too tired to even open his mouth. 

Ren can see now that Hux is the shadow of himself. The once clear green eyes are now foggy and deep dark circles surrounds them. A broken man. His rage towards Poe doubles and the choking force tightens.

“You… will… never -” Poe tries to talk but the last words are lost. There’s a crack in the dead silence, followed by a wail from FN-2187. Hux can see the traitor in the corner of his eye throwing himself on the dead pilot. 

“Are you gonna be a good boy, dog?” Ren snarls at the traitor’s direction. 

FN-2187 nods furiously, yet even from this angle Hux can see the anger in his eyes. 

“Good. You may live. For now. But consider this a warning… and a mercy. Next time I see you, you  _ will  _ draw your last breath” 

Hux is mesmerised. As Ren turns, he releases the latches on his helmet and removes it. The purpose for it gone now ; all the Rebel scum are dead except for one, there is no one left to strike with fear. And as the helmet lets go of his raven hair, Hux knows that he is finally safe. He is alive, even if barely, but the sight of his savior lifts his spirits.

“You came?” says Hux weakly, voice hoarse, parts of him still not believing it. He rubs his eyes, not completely believing in what they’re showing him.

Kylo kneels down next to him wanting to comfort but afraid to hurt. The Knight of Ren is horrified by the vision before him now that he actually takes in the sight: in barely 2 months, Hux has lost his weight, his skin is as pale as an ashy moon, he truly is the shadow of himself. The anger Ren felt earlier as he passed next to the general comes back and if he could, he’d bring back the pilot to make him suffer and kill him again. And again. As long as it would take for Hux to feel better. But now is not the time to let himself be submerged by his fury. 

“Of course. I couldn’t let Rebel scum get my best General.” he says, as a matter of fact, almost cold, knowing the Stormtroopers around might hear. The only thing he wants to say, however, is tell him how much he missed him and how he realized he truly couldn’t live without him. And that those feelings were beyond the official capacity of Hux, that he was truly scared he was never going to see him again. That he would never get the chance to tell him all that.

Though Kylo knows that the soldiers are not duped as to what is going on here. Suddenly, he notices that all of them have turned their backs to them, officially looking out the perimeter, unofficially giving them the privacy of a moment. 

The Supreme Leader grabs it and gently cups Hux’s face in his leather gloved hands looking him in the eyes, wiping a tear that escaped a second earlier “Let’s go home, shall we?” he says smiling, letting his love for him shine through the Force and hopefully envelop Hux in warmth as the Supreme Leader can feel the cold inside of him. Ren feels how far gone the General is and if he can’t love himself right now, he’s going to love for the both of them.

This awards him a small smile from the General as he touches Ren’s cheek to be sure once and for all that this is real “Yes” he answers simply. Knowing home means more than the actual ship. He can feel it inside his aching bones. A warmth he had never experienced before. For now he would let himself believe what he was feeling because that was the only way for him to get the strength to live. And though he can’t know Ren’s trail of thoughts, he had experienced quite the same trail. Back when he was in the hole, he surprised himself waiting for his Supreme Leader’s visitation in his mind. He realized that he actually had feelings for him, feelings he once thought were called hate, not knowing what love is. So when he feels the warm feeling enveloping him from within, his only thought is “could it be?”

“ _ Yes _ ” comes straight up in his mind as he sees Kylo smiling back at him.

The Supreme Leader knows full well that Hux isn’t able to walk right now, being too weak. But he doesn’t want to crush the very little pride left in the man either, so at first he tries to help him by supporting him, letting him take his steps but Ren is still an impatient man and the wounds of Hux are very real and in desperate need of medical attention “I’m sorry for this” he whispers before lifting his general up off the ground to carry him. 

Hux’s first reflex is to fight against the situation but the relief from the pain, the softness of Ren’s clothes and the fresh smell coming off his neck just win him over as he finally lets himself be carried out as a bride on her nuptial night. The Starkiller’s arms find their way around the Supreme Leader’s neck and his face rests peacefully on his shoulder. He passes out knowing he is safe and nothing could happen to him now.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think! This was my very first Kylux fic, my very first mlm fic for that matter...


End file.
